Cloud Computing
Depending on how much you get around on the web, you may have heard the term "Cloud Computing". Today we'll cover the basic idea of Cloud Computing. You may already be doing Cloud Computing and not even realizing it.
This ties in some with the previous 5 Reasons to Get a Google Account post.
Basically, Cloud Computing is the idea of platform independent applications and storage. Applications are programs, storage is of course, where you keep your files. Most people think of applications as something that comes on a disk or in an exe file that the run and install on their PC. For example, you might install the application Microsoft Office and run it locally on your PC to edit documents and make spreadsheets.
Truth be told, you probably did not install this program at all. If you have it on your personal PC, it's possible it came pre-installed from the company that sold you the PC. If you're in an office environment, it was probably installed by your local IT department. The point is though, that it runs naively on your machine. When you open and save files, they are saved locally nd only accessable from that machine.
The Cloud Computing equivilant would be something like Google Docs. You visit this website and the application runs in your web browser. It'll work on most web browsers and run on any operating system. This is unlike Microsoft Office which runs on Windows or Macintosh only depending on which version you have and doesn't work in Linux at all.
The other benefit of Google Docs is that the files all save on Google's servers off "in the Cloud". This means that you could work on a document at home on your desktop, save it, then go work on it at your office later int he day, then again on your laptop from the coffee shop at lunch. There are methods of achieving the same sort of effect with Microsoft office but this si just one example of Cloud Computing and Google docs involves slightly less hassle.
Another good example of a Cloud Computing application is A.viary.com. While it's currently invitation only, it's effectively an entire editing suite of products that work "in the cloud" through your web browser. They currently only have a limited number of applications available but there's a whole world of possibilities.
Another benefit of working "in the cloud" is colaborative documents and file sharing. You can share a google document with coworker and both of you can make changes to it easily. Files created on a.viary can be shared with other members of the community who can then comment on them or follow your updates and files. This leads to another topic (for another post), Social Networking.
There are some limitations of Cloud Computing. For starters, you're generally limited ont he amount of file space available. The storage at many places is ususually pretty generous but if you do a huge volume of file production you may hit a roadblock.
Another limitation comes from development constraits and issues from working in a web browser. A web browser is not an operating system (yet and doesn't always alow for the same level of computing power that a dedicated locally installed application can provide. Google Docs is convenient and easy but it's still nowhere near as powerful as a real Office Suite.
That pretty much wraps up this little intro into Cloud Computing, I hope you've enjoyed it. We'll touch on this topic more in the future.
This ties in some with the previous 5 Reasons to Get a Google Account post.
Basically, Cloud Computing is the idea of platform independent applications and storage. Applications are programs, storage is of course, where you keep your files. Most people think of applications as something that comes on a disk or in an exe file that the run and install on their PC. For example, you might install the application Microsoft Office and run it locally on your PC to edit documents and make spreadsheets.
Truth be told, you probably did not install this program at all. If you have it on your personal PC, it's possible it came pre-installed from the company that sold you the PC. If you're in an office environment, it was probably installed by your local IT department. The point is though, that it runs naively on your machine. When you open and save files, they are saved locally nd only accessable from that machine.
The Cloud Computing equivilant would be something like Google Docs. You visit this website and the application runs in your web browser. It'll work on most web browsers and run on any operating system. This is unlike Microsoft Office which runs on Windows or Macintosh only depending on which version you have and doesn't work in Linux at all.
The other benefit of Google Docs is that the files all save on Google's servers off "in the Cloud". This means that you could work on a document at home on your desktop, save it, then go work on it at your office later int he day, then again on your laptop from the coffee shop at lunch. There are methods of achieving the same sort of effect with Microsoft office but this si just one example of Cloud Computing and Google docs involves slightly less hassle.
Another good example of a Cloud Computing application is A.viary.com. While it's currently invitation only, it's effectively an entire editing suite of products that work "in the cloud" through your web browser. They currently only have a limited number of applications available but there's a whole world of possibilities.
Another benefit of working "in the cloud" is colaborative documents and file sharing. You can share a google document with coworker and both of you can make changes to it easily. Files created on a.viary can be shared with other members of the community who can then comment on them or follow your updates and files. This leads to another topic (for another post), Social Networking.
There are some limitations of Cloud Computing. For starters, you're generally limited ont he amount of file space available. The storage at many places is ususually pretty generous but if you do a huge volume of file production you may hit a roadblock.
Another limitation comes from development constraits and issues from working in a web browser. A web browser is not an operating system (yet and doesn't always alow for the same level of computing power that a dedicated locally installed application can provide. Google Docs is convenient and easy but it's still nowhere near as powerful as a real Office Suite.
That pretty much wraps up this little intro into Cloud Computing, I hope you've enjoyed it. We'll touch on this topic more in the future.
Labels: Cloud Computing, google, intermediate, internet, terminology
posted by Josh Miller @ 6:51 AM
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